a dark beginning
by orion1122
Summary: self insert HiE. not much I can say about it other than its going to be good. OCxCelestia
1. Chapter 1

AN: hey everypony I would like to get introductions out of the way right now my name is Camren, I'm an avid writer, and I love mlp (you should have know that if you're even reading this). I'm going to start with a self inset so you know how I think. I hope you enjoy, criticism is appreciated but please no hating or trolling.

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"God what the fuck just happened?" I said sitting down by a tree. I looked around to see a forest all around me. "this is going to be a long day. And its only just begun"

A lot had happened to last night. I remember walking the streets of New York city.

Cars were driving by as I listened to what little I could of people's conversations. Everyone was so happy they had not a care in the world.

They would never know that a 14 year old kid, walking the streets just lost his life. No family or friends, no food or money all he had was the clothes on his back. Even if they knew I don't think they would care, that's just the world we live in.

I walked into an ally and sat down behind a garbage can. I looked into a mirror that was next to me. I still had the same clothes and hair style that I did when I got the news.

I had on a pair of black and white converse, and black skinny jeans. On my top I had a black and white plaid button up shirt, and under that I had on a black short sleeved shirt. My hair was styled in a mow hawk fashion with bright white tips.

I sat there thinking of everything that's gone in my life. First my friends left me because of the way I think, then my family cant really blame them though, then my girlfriend she cheated on me for some stuck up rich snob. Suddenly I felt a gun press up to the back of my head, great now my life is gone too.

"give me all your money" a gruff voice said from behind me

"i don't have any" I said a little to calmly

"don't lie to me kid your life is on the line here"

"why would I lie, its not like I have a lot to live for anyways"

"i said don't lie to me"

"Why would I lie" I yelled "are you so stupid that you cant see I'm homeless. I have no friends, no family, I got no life either so why would I lie" tears were streaming out of my eyes. I just wanted this to be over so I could curl up in a corner and die alone.

"then why do you have on such good clothes"

"because that's what I had on"

"i don't buy it"

I let out a sigh and stood up "Then I'm done here" with that I started walking a way

"don't walk away from me I'll shoot"

I didn't care I just keeped walking, I knew he didn't want to shoot me, I was calling his bluff. To bad I was never good at poker. I felt a bullet go through the back of my head. It was painful but only for a second because by then I was already dead.

I woke up in a forest some time around dawn. I immediately started thinking of what to do... well not immediately first I freaked out because who wouldn't. I started walking in a random direction. I listened to the sound of leaves cracking under my feet and the sound of distant animals.

The animals here really scare me, something just seemed so unnatural. They all ran at the slightest of noise, but that's not what scared me, what really scared me is that there's lions in this forest. I get lion's are the king of the jungle but lions don't live in jungles, much less a forest.

But I digress, as long as it doesn't try to kill me and I don't have to run for my life, fun times will be had. I heard a loud roar from behind me, and I felt something breathing down my back. I slowly turned to see what it was, and I kind of wished I hadn't. Curiosity killed the cat after all.

Behind me was something I thought id never see. It was a lion, but the weird thing about this lion is that it had a scorpion tail and bat wings. Ok where the fuck am I?

I let out a sigh "alright I'm done with this forest, and most of all I'm done with you, you stupid cat!" the lion bat scorpion thing seemed to get more angry at me. It let out a roar before lashing out at me with its paw.

I dived out of the way and landed next to a dead body. I yelled out as I pushed it away from me. The lion started walking towards me as I crawled away. My hand came in contact with something it was could and felt like metal, I looked down to see it was a sword. What the hell is a sword doing here? Whatever I'm not complaining its my only chance.

I picked up the sword and held my ground. It jumped with it's paws extended ready to rip me apart. I jumped out of the way and slashed out. I was able to land a cut at it's shoulders. It turned to me and stabbed with its tail. I spun out of the way and cut it's back leg. It attacked with its paw strait at me, I didn't have time to dodge so I hit it strait on with my sword. I managed to damage its right paw but it easily over powered me and cut my left arm.

I was bleeding but not enough to put me down. What doesn't kill you makes you stronger right? It attacked again but this time with its tail. I steeped out of the way and hit it's tail. My sword bounced of it's exoskeleton, my sword came back and hit be above the eye a little bit. Dam double sided sword that's gonna leave a scar.

By now the lion was bleeding a lot by the wound in it's back leg, I must have hit something important. I ran at the beast and it ran at me. We were gonna meet head on for the final hit. I jumped above the lion ready to stab but it countered with it's tail. I dropped my sword and it fell on the lion. It left a deep gash before falling to the ground

The tail pushed me far away from the lion I stopped when my back came in contact with a tree. I slid down and stopped at the roots. I was done for but so was the lion I had won, if i die so would he. The lion walked up in pain and was going to deal the final blow.

Suddenly 6 colorful horses or maybe ponies came to my defense. Two had horns, two had wings, and two were just regular if you could look past the strange colors.

"leave him alone" said a timid voice. I looked around to see where it came from. The only things I could see were the ponies.

"yeah! why are you picking on something so helpless?" said the blue one with wings, a pegasus I'm guessing.

HOLY SHIT! Are ponies talking? Oh hell the fuck nah. I'm out as soon as I can feel my legs.

" actually dash he doesn't look so harmless he did hurt the manticor pretty bad." said the purple unicorn.

"that's a good point darling. Who should we be protecting?" said the white unicorn in some weird accent that I cant place. (really what is her accent)

"well the princess did say t' protect the strange creature" the orange one commented in a southern accent

"it doesn't look that weird. It would only be weird if it didn't like cupcakes. Oh I wonder if it likes pies?" says the crack headed pink pony.

Really? Ok I'm definitely out of here once their distracted. Luckily for me the manticor is persistent. It wanted me dead.

"alright girls lets do this"said the blue one rushing in blindly. They all charged the manticor. They managed to land a few hits before being knocked away. They charged again as the manticor let out a roar.

That was my chance to escape, and I took it. I ran, I didn't think of were to,but I still ran. Nothing was going to stop me. I ran for another minute or two before sitting by the nearest tree to take a breather.

"God what the fuck just happened?"

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AN:That's it guys the first chapter I hoped you liked it even though it was so short. it looked so longer on paper


	2. Chapter 2

AN: alright next chapter. I actually cant believe this story is doing so well and I ow it all to you guys. Alright here's my schedule. I have school Monday through Friday and I have a lot of out of school stuff every day, I only have time to write in weekends and Wednesday. So expect slow updates ill try for every Sunday or Monday and holidays, anyways if your wondering this is happening before the season two finale.

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I sat there looking at all the trees around me. There was no site of civilization anywhere, it was just forest as far as the eye can see. I started to think of what could lead up to this. I just couldn't there's no possible explanation to this, but then again I did just fight a manticor and lived so, what is possible. And plus I died there should be no way I'm alive right now, and even by the slightest chance I did survive how did I end up in a forest. Not only a forest but a forest filled to the brink with mythical creatures. This is going to be a long day. Suddenly sounds of snapping branches crackling leaves and hooves came from behind me.

"geez twilight why are we chasing that thing" I recognized the voice it was one of the ponies from earlier.

"the princess thinks its the only thing that can defeat whatever is causing the darkness." wait hang on. I'm some chosen hero from another world to save this one from sure destruction. You've got to be kidding me, and apparently I'm chosen by royalty too.

"wait so were pinning all our hopes on this one unknown creature" said the white one.

"rarity's right sugar cube . That sounds a little fishy t' me" said the orange one

"I know,i know but if we don't all of equestria could be destroyed." said the purple unicorn who I've now placed as twilight. " come on girls we don't have all day the princess is waiting for us. Let's go." by now the wound on my arm was seeping to much blood. I knew that if I stayed here I would die of blood loss.

I should probably go with them if I want to survive. And if I go with them I bet I could get answers to why I'm here. If I knew that I could probably find a way home if it even exists. I slowly and quietly crawled out of the bush, trying not to hurt myself.

I sat back down at the tree and let out a cough to get there attention. Apparently I only got the yellow ones attention. She let out an eep and flew into the trees.

" what is it now darling" said the white unicorn said turning to were the yellow one should have been. She wound up seeing me in the process. She let out a gasp and very dramatically fell into a plushy throw pillow that appeared out of nowhere.

All the action caught the attention of the others. They all turned and looked at me. Their eyes lingered on me, they all just stared, except the blue one.

"there he is get him" said the blue one flying at me. I didn't have time to tell her to stop so I did the only thing I could do. Dodge. I rolled out of the way just before she could hit me,causing her to go head first into the tree. I looked down at the unconscious mare, then up to her friends, then back to her, then back to her friends.

At that moment I said the stupidest four words I could have said at that moment " I didn't do it" all the ponies let out a gasp hearing me talk. They ran over to see if their friend was alright. The purple unicorn aka twilight walked... cantered... trotted over to see if I was ok.

"your zack right?" she asked

"y-yeah why?" I replied questioningly

"princess celestia co ruler of equestria would like to meat with you to speak of matter of utmost importance"

"ok? Sure but one quick question did you have to say it like that?" she looked at me confused. "never mind. But um I don't think ill be able to make it if I keep bleeding like this."

"r-right. Fluttershy do you think you can do anything about this wound"

"sure twilight" she said quietly

She slowly walked over to me and started to examine my wound. She looked at it for a minute before jumping back in surprise.

"whats wrong?' I asked as I looked over to my wound. To my surprise the wound was slowly patching itself up right in front of my eyes. twilight started to scan me with her horn.  
"this is amazing it's like nothing I've ever seen before. I've never heard of magic like this either. whats going on?" she said directing the question to me

"i dint know this is new to me to. In case you haven't recognized I'm not exactly from around here." twilight gave me an unamused look causing me to shut up.

"hmm, I'd like to study this more if your willing to help. But first we must get to the princess do you think you can make the trip now?" asked twilight.

I rolled my shoulders checking the wound. "yeah I think ill be fine now I'm in no pain. The only problem I see now is how were getting to the princess"

"I don't see a problem were going to walk to the library and talk to her. Why would there be a problem?"

"How am I going to walk through the town without causing a mad panic. I'm an unknown five foot tall creature."

"trust me you'll be fine."

"what if they all panic and run, or what if they all attack to try and stop me, or what if they're all afraid of me like fluttershy?"

"Trust me I'm sure no one will be that afraid, I mean we were just in the center of a chaotic chimera trying to take over all of equestria"

"wait what happened?"

"a while ago a chimera going by the name discord broke free of his prison. He wanted to spread chaos all throughout equestria and take back the throne."

"so what happened to him?"

"we eventually were able to use the elements of harmony to turn him back to stone."twilight said matter of factly.

Well I'm fucked if I ever piss them off "remind me never to get you guys mad"

"alright I will. are we ready to go now?"

with that we were off. The trip through the forest wasn't very eventful I wound up learning and memorizing their names. Rainbow dash keeped giving me looks. I could tell she didn't trust me just yet and I didn't really care.

Around 20 minuets of walking we exited the forest. Not to far away was a small village. It looked sort of medieval. Except for the few strange and overly colorful building here and there. The village was a good 10 minute walk from our location. I spent all of that time hardening myself for whatever may come my way.

When we entered the village everything stopped. The only sounds were my feet and the six set of hooves around me hitting the dirt. I felt every pair of eyes fix on me, and if looks could kill lets just say I'd be long dead.

The library where we were meeting the princess was on the other side of the town. We were casually walking for around a minute before we realized that the town was slowly starting to fallow us.

"does anyone else feel like running to the library instead of being fallowed?"

"oo sounds like fun" said pinkie before hopping away. I along with everyone else shortly fallowed her lead. We all ran towards the library twilight opened the door with our magic and we all filed in.

pinkie had abruptly stopped in the middle of the doorway. me not paying attention tripped over her and fell. I rolled into something unknown. A little oh and a crash of a cup hitting the ground was heard.

Beneath me was another pony. She was a bright white with a tint of pink. Her pastel colored main flowed in a non existing wind. Her magenta eyes were captivating they displayed wisdom through them, and they were more beautiful than anything else I've ever seen. She had both wings and a horn that complemented her horse figure. She had an aura of leadership and love around here that could affect anything.

I was on top of her for an uncertain time frame. It took me a while to fully compute what was happening. When I finally did realize what was happening I immediately jumped off.

"oh my god I'm so sorry I don't know what happened. I think I tripped on something, please forgive me."

"it's ok strange one. I'm sure you did not do it on purpose." the alicorn replied

"thank you for your forgiveness. I am Zack Martin it's a pleasure to meet you."

"hello zack I am glad to finally meet you. I am princess celestia."


	3. Chapter 3

AN: lots of positive reviews so far. I just wanna say I love you guys I don't know what I would do without you and I don't want to think of it either. I will be more than happy to answer any questions that you have about the story. And feel free to pm me any ideas and Oc's I'll need them for the climax (it's still far way but no harm in searching sooner than latter)

ok I realized I had a LOT of spelling errors and weird wordings. I fixed some but I hardly think I got them all but oh well I guess you'll have to deal with that or you could tell me what's wrong and I can fix it.

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Oh shit I think I fucked up. I just fell on the princess of a whole nation. Everyone was kind of just standing there. Their faces were frozen in an ungodly shock. Even though what happened could be a serious crime I couldn't help but laugh at their faces.

Apparently the princess found it funny too because when I turned to faces her it looked like she was trying to suppress her laugh. Tough to her dismay a cute little chuckle was let out when she my face of confusion.

They all suddenly realized what was happening and started to bow. I figured it was a good idea to fallow their lead so I went into a tebow. Why a tebow, well cuz I'm a troll. Problem? It also made it funnier that she had no idea that what I was doing was wrong.

"rise my little ponies" everyone rose so I fallowed the command even though I was not a pony. "zack I am so sorry I could not summon you to the castle like I planed. I had tried summoning you time and time again but could not bring you through. Each time I tried the spell got harder and harder. I was finally able to get you through but I did not have much control of it. It is lucky you appeared so close to the castle." she seamed to pause when she saw the sword and sheath on pinkie''s back that I quickly grabbed "you did not get into to much trouble I hope?"

"nothing I couldn't handle your majesty. It was just a simple pest problem." I replied as simply as possibly. She seemed to study me before her eyes rested on mine, almost as if she was staring into my sole. Now I'm not sure if you've ever had someone stair into your sole, but if you have then you know it's scarey. I was almost tempted to tell her I pretty much killed the manticor but before I could she gave me a nod and let the subject drop.

I don't know if I was happy or sad that I didn't get to brag about it. But it no longer matters I guess. "twilight I would like you to look after zack here for a few days. I will send news with luna when she arrives for nightmare night. Until then zack I suggest you get yourself comfortable, I'm afraid I do not have a reverse spell to bring you back home."

I immediately dropped the pieces of glass I was picking up for twilight succeeding in only making a bigger mess. "what" was the only word that could come to my mind at the moment. What else was I going to say. I just learned that I have no way out of this strange pony leading world, and unless ponies here eat meat I'm afraid I might die from malnourishment.

"I'm sorry zack it was the last thing I could do. If there was any other way I would have done it but I saw no other way. I wish there was something I could do for you but there is simply nothing I could do." princess celestia seemed actually distressed at her action even though I probably would have done something similar, especially if it meant my peoples safety.

"no, no truly its fine. I get that you did what you had to but it doesn't make it any less shocking. But really I don't know why I truly care it's not like I have anything to go back to" that was the honest truth to I had nothing back on earth. If anything I should be happy to be here.

"really? Care to explain?"

"not really princess maybe one day I will tell you but not today, it's still a sore subject."

"then I will respect your privacy. It has been a pleasure talking to you all but if you excuse me I must be off my dear ponies."

"aw but princess you'll miss zack's welcome to equestria party. Will you please stay?" everyone looked at pinkie at shock. Twilight almost looked like she was going to faint from pure shock and horror.

"hmm, is there going to be cake?" she asked

"well duh its a party its a party after all no way is there going to be no cake."

"then I suppose I could take some time to stay" everyone but me let out I sigh of relief when she answered. Me I simply let out a chuckle at both pinkies strange antics, and the fact she literally bribed a princess to stay for a party with cake.

But sadly my happiness didn't stay for long before pinkie almost scared me back to death. She quickly pulled a cannon out from time and space and shot it in the air. Confetti and steamers rained out the top like a rainbow. Some landed I'm my eyes and blinded me. When I was able to get them of tables and food was set up in the library, and somehow miraculously rainbow dash had somehow woken up. I'm pinning that on magic and moving on.

"surprise!" they all yelled. I had no clue why but this little act had brought me out of any kind of slump that I was in. we all soon started to party like there was no tomorrow.

The party was fairly fun to my surprise, I would never have guessed that ponies would be able to do something that could hold my interest. Me and celestia hung out by the snack table most of the time talking about things from human politics to equestrian history to what I like to do in my off time. Everypony else seemed to dance and play games they occasionally came over to talk to either me or celestia.

Everything was going quite well until pinkie came over "hey zack, why aren't you dancing?" she asked

"oh I'm not very good at it I have two left feet or hooves in your case" I saw a glint go off in celestia's eyes I could almost taste the trouble that could occur.

"oh I'm sure your not that bad zack why don't you give it a try"said celestia trying to get me to embarrass myself

"i don't see you dancing celestia"

"that would be very unladylike of a princess to do" oh celestia bad choice I see your bluff and I raise

"it's also unladylike for a princess to be bribed away from her work for the promise of cake" celestia glared at me.

"Yes but at least I am not afraid to dance in a crowd of strangers" oh ok celestia that's how your going to be. If I know one thing it's easier to impress strangers than it is to not embarrass yourself in front of friends

I leaned over to pinkie and quietly told her to put on a slow song. She gave me a nod before running off. Soon a slow song started to play in place of the pony pop music. "well then would you care for a dance" I said giving her a bow and an over dramatic wave of my hand.

Celestia was too far in to pull out now so she took my hand and lead me to the dance floor. We soon stepped in place and started dancing. At first it was all an elaborate trap to say I win when she got embarrassed but we wound up having fun. There were a few awkward parts in the song that I couldn't do seeing as how it was made for a pony not me but I digress it was still fun. I hadn't recognized this at the time but everyone was staring at us as we danced. The song ended and there was complete silence throughout the library.

Hooves started to pond on the ground, I guess that was their form of clapping. Me and celestia laughed at the outcome of our little duel. At first when I heard her name I thought she was going to be stuck up, but now I know that she's the complete opposite of that.

"well my little ponies I must be off I have things I must attend too" celestia said dismissing their clapping

"aw but princess the sun is about to set this is when the fun begins. please stay" pinkie begged

celestia seemed reluctant but this was my chance for vengeance I was not about to let it slip between my fingers. "yes celestia do stay you haven't even begun to see the fun that could be had." I leaned a bit closer and more quietly said "and plus we both know that if you had something serious to do you wouldn't have stayed in the first place" and that was it the final nail in the coffin she fell right into the trap.

"alright then I shall stay for a while longer" everyone cheered when they heard that she was staying. "just let me lower the sun so the night can come"

everyone watched her as her horn began to glow a bright yellow. The wind in her hair seemed to speed up as her horn got brighter. She slowly started to lower her horn to the ground, the wind in her main started to slow down to its regular pace. Her main had finally slowed all the way down to its normal pace when the sun had set.

"wait what just happened?" I asked completely left out

"i just lowered the sun doesn't someone in your world do that?"

"n-no the sun lowers itself in my world"

"really now how does that work?"

"well you see the sun is stationary in my universe and all the planets rotate arou-

"boring come on let's play truth or dare" interrupted dash everyone disbanded then reformed on the other side of the room to play. Only me celestia and twilight were not playing.

Twilight and celestia spent the time not playing to ask me questions about astronomy. Astronomy was one of the few things I loved to study so I knew quite a lot, but there was still some things that I did not quite know.

By the time I finished everyone had already stopped playing truth or dare which I was glad for. I was also glad me and celestia made a temporary truce because I really didn't want to play truth or dare with an all powerful goddess and queen.

The night had only just begun though. Pinkie decided to bring out a few more adult games which were fun I won't lie. As the night dragged on they all became more tired so I decided to play cards with them. They didn't know all the popular ones from earth like war or blackjack so I had to teach them

twilight seemed to like blackjack not much to my surprise seeing how its a game about numbers, and celestia and me got into a very competitive game of war. It went on all the way to about two in the morning and only ended when I threw the match. How do you throw a game of chance, I hear you ask, well I don't know I just did, and just so you know she defiantly did not get all four aces.

Everypony else had gone home or fallen asleep and due to my crazy day it wasn't hard to fallow their lead. And to my surprise celestia had the same idea because when I looked over she was passed out. I guess she was still tired from trying to summon me here so many times, it was 115 times she tried if I remembered correctly. That's such a large number its crazy I know for a fact I would have given up after the tenth try.

But I guess that's why she's the princess. She's always willing to do what's necessary for her subjects and to that I give her my respect.

"goodnight princess" that was the last thing I said before falling asleep

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wow I cant believe I got this done so fast I guess that's what can get done when you stay home sick with nothing else to do I hope you enjoyed this little filler chapter oh and btw my celestia is a mixture of trolestia and the regular celestia


	4. Chapter 4

AN: still looking for OCs if anyone is interested they'll be used in the climax of the story or in fillers not much else I can say other than enjoy and that it's going to be a short but informative chapter so yeah lets just start

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I woke up at what I guessed was 6:30. I heard the sound of hooves cloping against the wooden floor of the library floor. I saw celestia up and trying to silently walk out the door. I decided to follow her out to see what she was doing.

She had started to charge up a spell she spread her wings and flew into the air. The sun started to rise, leaving only a silhouette of her body. She slowly glided down to the ground and landed. I was amazed seeing her set the sun was one thing seeing her rise it was entirely different.

"that was beautiful princess" I said startling her. She let out a yelp and jumped into the air. I chuckled as she was trying to compose herself.

"oh zack it's only you, you scared me. It's not often that something gets by me. Is there something you need?"

"yes actually I had a question"

"alright what is it zack"

"why me?"

"what do you mean?"

" I mean why out of all the humans you could have picked why did you try so hard for me?"

"well you see humans used to be able to use magic"

"wait what?"

"yes human used to be able to do magic. Humans actually offered us magic as a peace offering. Humans became my greatest allies while they were here. They were smart in battle and could use weapons my ponies couldn't. My ponies had the strength and they had the smarts, together we ruled the world in peace. But one day when we needed them the most they all vanished. I gathered all my ponies to fight the dragon army. Those were dark times in equestria."

"then how come humans can no longer use magic?"

"my only guess is that magic became inferior. Humans have a resistance to their own magic. So I think it just died out."

"it also didn't help that a religion was persecuting anyone who they thought had magical abilities." dam you Christianity

"what?" she asked surprised

"Christianity persecuted and burned alive anyone they thought was a wizard. Sad part is is that its the biggest religion practiced in the world for thousands of years."

"that's horrible why would they do that?"

"many believe people do bad things in fear of the unknown. Me I believe that people are just sick and demented"

"that's so sad"

"it is" after that it was quiet for a while. "so is there anything you can tell me about the darkness?"

"what scares me the most is I actually cant tell you much. One day the ground started shaking, Cracks started to form around the everfree forest. The darkness suddenly started seeping from the cracks and into the air. Whoever inhaled enough of it became either insane, lost control of their body, or in the worst cases died. The insane ones are easy enough to hold down luckily and we are conducting experiments, but we haven,t found anything that can help us stop it. We do know however that it is immune to our strongest magic, the elements of harmony."

"what are those?"

"they elements are strong magical artifacts that feed of the powers of friendship. They are kindness, loyalty, laughter, honesty, generosity, and magic. They are held by fluttershy, rainbow dash, pinkie pie, apple jack, rarity, and twilight respectively.

I took note of everything I heard that was important in the conversation. Basically all I got was humans could use magic and the darkness is immune to unicorn magic. "so princess do you think you could teach me magic?"

"i would send you to my student but she does not know human magic, and sadly I do not have the time to teach you. Not until I am able to find a cure for the darkness. Though my sister luna may be able to help you, she is not as strong as me at it but it,s still a good start. You will begin after nightmare night. You will accompany my sister for the day then return to canterlot as her student."

"thank you princess"

"your welcome now if you must excuse me I must tell luna of this event. Tell my little ponies that I am sorry for not staying and that I send my best for them. Goodby zack."

"goodbye, celestia" with that she flew of into the sky towards canterlot. I snuck back into the library for more sleep. I curled up onto the couch and closed my eyes slowly drifting to sleep... wait a minute she never answered my questions.

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AN short chapter I know and its really late too but at least it has major plot points


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